Bruce Castle (formerly the Lordship House) is a Grade I listed 16th-century[1]manor house in Lordship Lane, Tottenham, London. It is named after the House of Bruce who formerly owned the land on which it is built. Believed to stand on the site of an earlier building, about which little is known, the current house is one of the oldest surviving English brick houses. It was remodelled in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.

The house has been home to Sir William Compton, the Barons Coleraine and Sir Rowland Hill, among others. After serving as a school during the 19th century, when a large extension was built to the west, it was converted into a museum exploring the history of the areas now constituting London Borough of Haringey and, on the strength of its connection with Sir Rowland Hill, the history of the Royal Mail. The building also houses the archives of the London Borough of Haringey. Since 1892 the grounds have been a public park, Tottenham's oldest.

The name Bruce Castle is derived from the House of Bruce, who had historically owned a third of the manor of Tottenham. However, there was no castle in the area, and it is unlikely that the family lived nearby.[3] Upon his accession to the Scottish throne in 1306, Robert I of Scotland forfeited his lands in England, including the Bruce holdings in Tottenham,[3] ending the connection between the Bruce family and the area. The former Bruce land in Tottenham was granted to Richard Spigurnell and Thomas Hethe.[4]

The three parts of the manor of Tottenham were united in the early 15th century under the Gedeney family and have remained united since.[4] In all early records, the building is referred to as the Lordship House. The name Bruce Castle first appears to have been adopted by Henry Hare, 2nd Baron Coleraine (1635–1708),[3] although Daniel Lysons speculates in The Environs of London (1795) the name's use dates to the late 13th century.[4]

A detached, cylindrical Tudor tower stands immediately to the southwest of the house, and is generally considered to be the earliest part of the building;[5] however, Lysons believes it to have been a later addition.[4] The tower is built of local red brick, and is 21 feet (6.4 m) tall, with walls 3 feet (0.91 m) thick.[5] In 2006, excavations revealed that it continues for some distance below the current ground level.[6] It was described in 1829 as being over a deep well, and being used as a dairy.[7]

Sources disagree on the house's initial construction date, and no records survive of its construction. There is some archaeological evidence dating parts of the building to the 15th century;[5] William Robinson's History and Antiquities of the Parish of Tottenham (1840) suggests a date of about 1514,[8] although the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments attributes it to the late 16th century. Nikolaus Pevsner speculates the front may have formed part of a courtyard house of which the remainder has disappeared.[9]

The Grade I mansion's principal facade has been substantially remodelled. The house is made of red brick with ashlarquoining and the principal facade, terminated by symmetrical matching bays, has tall paned windows. The house and detached tower are among the earliest uses of brick as the principal building material for an English house.[10]

Henry Hare, 2nd Baron Coleraine (1635–1708) oversaw a substantial remodelling of the house in 1684, and much of the existing south facade dates from that time. The end bays were heightened, and the central porch was rebuilt with stone quoins and pilasters, a balustraded top and a small tower and cupola.[9] A plan from 1684 shows the hall in the house's centre, with service rooms to the west and the main parlour to the east. On the first floor, the dining room was over the hall, the main bedchamber over the kitchen, and a lady's chamber over the porch.[9]

In the early 18th century Henry Hare, 3rd Baron Coleraine (1694–1749) oversaw a remodelling of the north of the house, that added a range of rooms to the north and the Coleraine coat of arms to the pediment of the north facade.[9] In the late 18th century, under the ownership of James Townsend, the narrow east facade of the house was remodelled into an entrance front, and given the appearance of a typical Georgian house. At the same time, the south front's gabled attics were removed, giving the house's southern elevation its current appearance.[9] An inventory of the house made in 1789 in preparation for its sale listed a hall, saloon, drawing room, dining room and breakfast parlour on the ground floor, with a library and billiard room on the first floor.[9]

In the early 19th century, the house's west wing was demolished, leaving it with the asymmetrical appearance it retains today.[11] The house was converted into a school, and in 1870 a three-story extension was built in the Gothic Revival style to the northwest of the house.[9]

The 2006 excavations by the Museum of London uncovered the chalk foundations of an earlier building on the site, of which nothing is known.[6]Court rolls of 1742 refer to the repair of a drawbridge, implying that the building then had a moat.[5] A 1911 archaeological journal made passing reference to "the recent levelling of the moat".[12]

It is generally believed the house's first owner was Sir William Compton, Groom of the Stool to Henry VIII and one of the period's prominent courtiers, who acquired the manor of Tottenham in 1514.[5] However, there is no evidence of Compton's living in the house, and there is some evidence the building dates to a later period.[5]

The earliest known reference to the building dates from 1516, when Henry VIII met his sister Margaret, Queen of Scots, at "Maister Compton's House beside Tottenham".[8] The Comptons owned the building throughout the 16th century, but few records of the family or the building survive.[14]

Henry Hare (1635–1708) settled at the Lordship House, renaming it Bruce Castle in honour of the area's historic connection with the House of Bruce.[3] Hare was a noted historian and author of the first history of Tottenham. He grew up at the Hare family house at Totteridge, and it is not known when he moved to Tottenham. At the time of the birth of his first child, Hugh, in 1668, the family were still living in Totteridge, while by the time of the death of his first wife Constantia, in 1680, the family were living in Bruce Castle. According to Hare, Constantia was buried in All Hallows Church in Tottenham. However, the parish register for the period is complete and makes no mention of her death or burial.[18]

Bruce Castle in the late 17th century, following Hare's alterations. The gate piers are possibly extant at Northumberland Row, near where White Hart Lane joins Ermine Street (A10).

Following the death of Constantia, Hare married Sarah Alston. They had been engaged in 1661, but she had instead married John Seymour, 4th Duke of Somerset. There is evidence that during Sarah's marriage to Seymour and Hare's marriage to Constantia, a close relationship was sustained between them.[19]

The house was substantially remodelled in 1684, following Henry Hare's marriage to the dowager Duchess of Somerset, and much of the existing south facade dates from this time.[9] The facade's central tower with a belvedere is a motif of the English Renaissance of the late 16th/early 17th centuries. Hatfield House, also close to London, had a similar central tower constructed in 1611, as does Blickling Hall in Norfolk, built circa 1616.

Although sources such as Pegram speculate that Constantia committed suicide in the face of a continued relationship between Hare and the Duchess of Somerset,[19] little is known about her life and the circumstances of her early death, and her ghost reputedly haunts the castle.[20]

The grounds of Bruce Castle, now a public park

The earliest recorded reference to the ghost appeared in 1858—almost two hundred years after her death—in the Tottenham & Edmonton Advertiser.

A lady of our acquaintance was introduced at a party to an Indian Officer who, hearing that she came from Tottenham, eagerly asked if she had seen the Ghostly Lady of Bruce Castle. Some years before he had been told the following story by a brother officer when encamped on a march in India. One of the Lords Coleraine had married a beautiful lady and while she was yet in her youth had been seized with a violent hatred against her—whether from jealousy or not is not known. He first confined her to the upper part of the house and subsequently still more closely to the little rooms of the clock turret. These rooms looked on the balconies: the lady one night succeeded in forcing her way out and flung herself with child in arms from the parapet. The wild despairing shriek aroused the household only to find her and her infant in death's clutches below. Every year as the fearful night comes round (it is in November) the wild form can be seen as she stood on the fatal parapet, and her despairing cry is heard floating away on the autumnal blast.[18][21]

The legend has now been largely forgotten, and there have been no reported sightings of the ghost in recent times.[20]

The house was remodelled again under the 3rd Baron Coleraine's ownership. An extra range of rooms was added to the north, and the pediment of the north front ornamented with a large coat of the Coleraine arms.[9]

Hare's marriage was not consummated, and following an affair with a French woman, Rosa du Plessis, du Plessis bore him his only child, a daughter named Henrietta Rosa Peregrina, born in France in 1745.[22] Hare died in 1749 leaving his estates to the four-year-old Henrietta, but her claim was rejected owing to her French nationality. After many years of legal challenges, the estates, including Bruce Castle, were granted to her husband James Townsend, whom she had married at age 18.[22]

James Townsend remodelled the east facade to have the appearance of a typical Georgian house.

James Townsend was a leading citizen of the day. He served as a magistrate, was Member of Parliament for West Looe, and in 1772 became Lord Mayor of London, while Henrietta was a prominent artist, many of whose engravings of 18th-century Tottenham survive in the Bruce Castle Museum.[22]

After 1764, under the ownership of James Townsend, the house was remodelled again. The narrow east front was remodelled into an entrance front, and given the appearance of a typical Georgian house, while the gabled attics on the south front were removed, giving the south facade the appearance it has today.[9]

James and Henrietta Townsend's son, Henry Hare Townsend, showed little interest in the area or in the traditional role of the Lord of the Manor. After leasing the house to a succession of tenants, the house and grounds were sold in 1792 to Thomas Smith of Gray's Inn as a country residence.[22]

John Eardley Wilmot (c. 1749 – 23 June 1815) was Member of Parliament for Tiverton (1776–1784) and Coventry (1784–1796), and in 1783 led the Parliamentary Commission investigating the events that led to the American Revolution. He also led the processing of compensation claims, and the supply of basic housing and provisions, for the 60,000 Loyalist refugees who arrived in England after the independence of the United States.[11]

In 1804, Wilmot retired from public life and moved to Bruce Castle to write his memoirs of the American Revolution and his role in the investigations of its causes and consequences. They were published shortly before his death in 1815.[11] After Wilmot's death, London merchant John Ede purchased the house and its grounds, and demolished the building's west wing.[11]

Hill and his brothers had taken over the management of their father's school in Birmingham in 1819, which opened a branch at Bruce Castle in 1827, with Rowland Hill as Headmaster. The school was run along radical lines inspired by Hill's friends Thomas Paine, Richard Price and Joseph Priestley;[23] all teaching was on the principle that the teacher's role is to instill the desire to learn, not to impart facts, corporal punishment was abolished and alleged transgressions were tried by a court of pupils, while the school taught a radical (for the time) curriculum including foreign languages, science and engineering.[24][25] Among other pupils, the school taught the sons of many London-based diplomats, particularly from the newly independent nations of South America, and the sons of computing pioneer Charles Babbage.[24]

In 1839 Rowland Hill, who had written an influential proposal on postal reform, was appointed as head of the General Post Office (where he introduced the world's first postage stamps), leaving the school in the hands of his younger brother Arthur Hill.[24]

19th-century extension to house the school

During the period of the School's operation, the character of the area had changed beyond recognition. Historically, Tottenham had consisted of four villages on Ermine Street (later the A10 road), surrounded by marshland and farmland.[26] The construction of the Northern and Eastern Railway in 1840, with stations at Tottenham Hale and Marsh Lane (later Northumberland Park), made commuting from Tottenham to central London feasible for the first time (albeit by a circuitous eight-mile route via Stratford, more than double the distance of the direct road route), as well as providing direct connections to the Port of London.[27] In 1872 the Great Eastern Railway opened a direct line from Enfield to Liverpool Street station,[28] including a station at Bruce Grove, close to Bruce Castle;[29] the railway provided subsidised workmen's fares to allow poor commuters to live in Tottenham and commute to work in central London.[30] As a major rail hub, Tottenham grew into a significant residential and industrial area; by the end of the 19th century, the only remaining undeveloped areas were the grounds of Bruce Castle itself, and the waterlogged floodplains of the River Lea at Tottenham Marshes and of the River Moselle at Broadwater Farm.[26]

In 1877 Birkbeck Hill retired from the post of headmaster, ending his family's association with the school. The school closed in 1891, and Tottenham Council purchased the house and grounds. The grounds of the house were opened to the public as Bruce Castle Park in June 1892,[31] the first public park in Tottenham.[32] The house opened to the public as Bruce Castle Museum in 1906.[33][34]

That in a tide of beauty bathes the skies,
Filling the balmy air with purity,
Silent and lone, and on the greensward dies—
But when on ye her heavenly slumber lies,
TOWERS OF BRUS! 'tis more than lovely then.—
For such sublime associations rise,
That to young fancy's visionary ken,
'Tis like a maniac's dream—fitful and still again.[36]

Bruce Castle is now a museum, holding the archives of the London Borough of Haringey, and housing a permanent exhibition on the past, present and future of Haringey and its predecessor boroughs, and temporary displays on the history of the area.[32] Other exhibits include an exhibition on Rowland Hill and postal history,[35] a significant collection of early photography, a collection of historic manorial documents and court rolls related to the area,[37] and one of the few copies available for public reading of the Spurs Opus, the complete history of Tottenham Hotspur.[38] In 1949, the building was Grade I listed;[39] the round tower was separately Grade I listed at the same time,[40] and the 17th-century southern and western boundary walls of the park were Grade II listed in 1974.[41][42] In 1969 the castle became home to the regimental museum of the Middlesex Regiment[43] whose collection was subsequently transferred to the National Army Museum.[44]

In July 2006 a major community archaeological dig was organised in the grounds by the Museum of London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre, as part of the centenary celebrations of the opening of Bruce Castle Museum,[6] in which large numbers of local youths took part.[45][46] As well as large quantities of discarded everyday objects, the chalk foundations of what appears to be an earlier house on the site were discovered.[6]

In 2012 the public grounds at Bruce Castle were used for PARK ART in Haringey, part of the borough's cultural Olympiad offer for 2012. Up Projects, in partnership with Haringey Council and funded by Arts Council England, commissioned Ben Long to create "Lion Scaffolding Sculpture",[47] a nine-metre tall classical lion on a plinth that was constructed from builder's scaffolding. The monumental sculpture, created for the front lawn of Bruce Castle Museum, referenced the traditional archetype of the regal lion commonly found in the grounds of stately homes, but also the heraldic emblem of Robert the Bruce, therefore reflecting on the heritage of the building. Build in situ over four weeks, the fabrication became a durational performance, highlighting the role that work and labour play in the development of any artistic or creative pursuit.[48][49]

^Sources differ as to the date of construction; some date the current building to the 15th century, but most agree that the house dates from the 16th century, although there is no consensus as to the exact date.

^As with most other English maps of the period, the map is aligned with south at the top (i.e. "upside down" when compared to modern maps). The alignment of streets in the area is preserved today; the road running east-west is the present-day Lordship Lane, and the road running north-south past the church is the present-day Church Lane; Bruce Grove does not yet exist, but its eventual route can be seen in the field boundaries running diagonally immediately south of the castle. The large field opposite the house (marked "Lease") is the northeast corner of the water-meadow, which became Broadwater Farm. The fields to the east of Church Lane are the present Bruce Castle Park, while those to the west surrounding the church now form part of Tottenham Cemetery.

^A printing press designed by Rowland Hill and built by the school's pupils is on display at London's Science Museum. At this time, school curricula were almost always restricted to the classics; for a school to include engineering was almost unique.

1.
Listed building
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A listed building or listed structure, in the United Kingdom, is one that has been placed on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest. The statutory bodies maintaining the list are Historic England in England, Cadw in Wales, Historic Scotland in Scotland, however, the preferred term in Ireland is protected structure. In England and Wales, an amenity society must be notified of any work to a listed building which involves any element of demolition. Owners of listed buildings are, in circumstances, compelled to repair and maintain them. When alterations are permitted, or when listed buildings are repaired or maintained, slightly different systems operate in each area of the United Kingdom, though the basic principles of the listing remain the same. It was the damage to caused by German bombing during World War II that prompted the first listing of buildings that were deemed to be of particular architectural merit. The listings were used as a means of determining whether a building should be rebuilt if it was damaged by bombing. Listing was first introduced into Northern Ireland under the Planning Order 1972, the listing process has since developed slightly differently in each part of the UK. In the UK, the process of protecting the historic environment is called ‘designation’. A heritage asset is a part of the environment that is valued because of its historic. Only some of these are judged to be important enough to have legal protection through designation. However, buildings that are not formally listed but still judged as being of heritage interest are still regarded as being a consideration in the planning process. Almost anything can be listed – it does not have to be a building, Buildings and structures of special historic interest come in a wide variety of forms and types, ranging from telephone boxes and road signs, to castles. Historic England has created twenty broad categories of structures, and published selection guides for each one to aid with assessing buildings and these include historical overviews and describe the special considerations for listing each category. Both Historic Scotland and Cadw produce guidance for owners, in England, to have a building considered for listing or delisting, the process is to apply to the secretary of state, this can be done by submitting an application form online to Historic England. The applicant does not need to be the owner of the building to apply for it to be listed, full information including application form guidance notes are on the Historic England website. Historic England assesses buildings put forward for listing or delisting and provides advice to the Secretary of State on the architectural, the Secretary of State, who may seek additional advice from others, then decides whether or not to list or delist the building. In England and Wales the authority for listing is granted to the Secretary of State by the Planning Act 1990, Listed buildings in danger of decay are listed on the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register

2.
Manor house
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A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The term is loosely applied to various country houses, frequently dating from the late medieval era. They were sometimes fortified, but this was intended more for show than for defence. Manor houses existed in most European countries where feudalism existed, where they were known as castles, palaces. Many buildings, such as schools, are named Manor, the reason behind this is because the building was or is close to a manor house. The lord of the manor may have several properties within a county or, for example in the case of a feudal baron, spread across a kingdom. A large and suitable building was required within the manor for such purpose, generally in the form of a hall. This also gave the opportunity for the manor house to be cleaned, especially important in the days of the cess-pit. Thus such non-resident lords needed to appoint a steward or seneschal to act as their deputy in such matters, the day-to-day administration was carried out by a resident official in authority at each manor, who in England was called a bailiff, or reeve. Although not typically built with strong fortifications as were castles, many manor-houses were fortified and they were often enclosed within walls or ditches which often also included agricultural buildings. The primary feature of the house was its great hall. A late 16th-century transformation produced many of the smaller Renaissance châteaux of France, the Tudor period of stability in England saw the building of the first of the unfortified great houses, for example Sutton Place in Surrey, circa 1521. During the second half of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and under her successor King James I the first mansions designed by architects not by mere masons or builders, began to make their appearance. Such houses as Burghley House, Longleat House, and Hatfield House are among the best known of this period, nearly every large mediaeval manor house had its own deer-park adjoining, emparked by royal licence, which served primarily as a store of food in the form of venison. Within these licensed parks deer could not be hunted by royalty and this gave them more privacy and space. Court was a suffix which came into use in the 16th century, the obvious origin of the suffix would appear to be that the building was the location where the manorial courts were held. True castles, when not royal castles, were generally the residences of feudal barons, the manor on which the castle was situated was termed the caput of the barony, thus every true ancient defensive castle was also the manor house of its own manor. The suffix -Park came into use in the 18th and 19th centuries, the usage is often a modern catch-all suffix for an old house on an estate, true manor or not

3.
Tottenham
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Tottenham is an area in the London Borough of Haringey, in north London, England. It is situated 8.2 miles north-north-east of Charing Cross, Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book, hence Totas hamlet became Tottenham. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Toteham, there has been a settlement at Tottenham for over a thousand years. It grew up along the old Roman road, Ermine Street, when the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, about 70 families lived within the area of the manor, mostly labourers working for the Lord of the Manor. A humorous poem entitled the Tournament of Tottenham, written around 1400, in 1894, Tottenham was made an urban district and on 27 September 1934 it became a municipal borough. As from 1 April 1965, the borough formed part of the London Borough of Haringey. The River Lea was the boundary between the Municipal Boroughs of Tottenham and Walthamstow. It is the ancient boundary between Middlesex and Essex and also formed the boundary of the Viking controlled Danelaw. Today it is the boundary between the London Boroughs of Haringey and Waltham Forest, a major tributary of the Lea, the River Moselle, also crosses the borough from west to east, and often caused serious flooding until it was mostly covered in the 19th century. From the Tudor period onwards, Tottenham became a popular recreation, Henry VIII is known to have visited Bruce Castle and also hunted in Tottenham Wood. A rural Tottenham also featured in Izaak Waltons book The Compleat Angler, the area became noted for its large Quaker population and its schools Tottenham remained a semi-rural and upper middle class area until the 1870s. In late 1870, the Great Eastern Railway introduced special workmans trains and fares on its newly opened Enfield, Tottenhams low-lying fields and market gardens were then rapidly transformed into cheap housing for the lower middle and working classes, who were able to commute cheaply to inner London. The workmans fare policy stimulated the early development of the area into a London suburb. An incident occurred on 23 January 1909, which was at the known as the Tottenham Outrage. Two armed robbers of Russian extraction held up the wages clerk of a works in Chesnut Road. They made their getaway via Tottenham Marshes and fled across the Lea, on the opposite bank of the river they hijacked a Walthamstow Corporation tramcar, hotly pursued by the police on another tram. The hijacked tram was stopped but the robbers continued their flight on foot, after firing their weapons and killing two people, Ralph Joscelyne, aged 10, and PC William Tyler, they were eventually cornered by the police and shot themselves rather than be captured. Fourteen other people were wounded during the chase, the incident later became the subject of a silent film

4.
Rowland Hill
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Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his solution of prepayment, facilitating the safe, speedy. Hill later served as a government postal official, and he is credited with originating the basic concepts of the modern postal service. Hill was born in Blackwell Street, Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England, rowlands father, Thomas Wright Hill, was an innovator in education and politics, including among his friends Joseph Priestley, Tom Paine and Richard Price. At the age of 12, Rowland became a student-teacher in his fathers school and he taught astronomy and earned extra money fixing scientific instruments. He also worked at the Assay Office in Birmingham and painted landscapes in his spare time, the school, which Hill designed, included innovations including a science laboratory, a swimming pool, and forced air heating. Science was to be a subject, and students were to be self-governing. Jullien even transferred his son there, Hazelwood so impressed Jeremy Bentham that in 1827 a branch of the school was created at Bruce Castle in Tottenham, London. In 1833, the original Hazelwood School closed and its system was continued at the new Bruce Castle School of which Hill was head master from 1827 until 1839. The colonisation of South Australia was a project of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, in 1832 Rowland Hill published a tract called Home colonies, sketch of a plan for the gradual extinction of pauperism, and for the diminution of crime, based on a Dutch model. Hill then served from 1833 until 1839 as secretary of the South Australian Colonization Commission, the political economist, Robert Torrens was chairman of the Commission. Under the South Australia Act 1834, the colony was to embody the ideals and best qualities of British society, shaped by religious freedom, Rowland Hills sister Caroline Clark, husband Francis and their large family were to migrate to South Australia in 1850. Rowland Hill first started to take a serious interest in reforms in 1835. In 1836 Robert Wallace, MP, provided Hill with numerous books and documents, Hill commenced a detailed study of these documents and this led him to the publication, in early 1837, of a pamphlet called Post Office Reform its Importance and Practicability. He submitted a copy of this to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Thomas Spring Rice and this first edition was marked private and confidential and was not released to the general public. Fundamentally, the system was mismanaged, wasteful, expensive. It had become inadequate for the needs of a commercial and industrial nation. At that time, letters were normally paid for by the recipient, the recipient could simply refuse delivery

5.
Royal Mail
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Royal Mail plc is a postal service company in the United Kingdom, originally established in 1516. The companys subsidiary, Royal Mail Group Limited, operates the brands Royal Mail, General Logistics Systems, an international logistics company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group. The company provides mail collection and delivery services throughout the UK, letters are deposited in a pillar or wall box, taken to a post office, or collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and bank holidays at uniform charges for all UK destinations, Royal Mail generally aims to make first class deliveries the next business day throughout the nation. For most of its history, Royal Mail has been a public service, however, following the Postal Services Act 2011, a majority of the shares in Royal Mail were floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2013. The UK government initially retained a 30% stake in Royal Mail, however it sold its shares in 2015. The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a Master of the Posts, upon his accession to the throne of England at the Union of the Crowns in 1603, James VI and I moved his court to London. One of his first acts from London was to establish the royal postal service between London and Edinburgh, in an attempt to control over the Scottish Privy Council. The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I on 31 July 1635, the monopoly was farmed out to Thomas Witherings. In the 1640s Parliament removed the monopoly from Witherings and during the Civil War, to keep his monopoly in those troubled times Prideaux improved efficiency and used both legal impediments and illegal methods. In 1653 Parliament set aside all previous grants for postal services, in July 1655 the Post Office was put under the direct government control of John Thurloe, a Secretary of State, and best known to history as Cromwells spymaster general. Previous English governments had tried to prevent conspirators communicating, Thurloe preferred to deliver their post having surreptitiously read it, the first Postmaster General was appointed in 1661, and a seal was first fixed to the mail. Between 1719 and 1763, Ralph Allen, postmaster at Bath, signed a series of contracts with the post office to develop and he organised mail coaches which were provided by both Wilson & Company of London and Williams & Company of Bath. The early Royal Mail Coaches were similar to ordinary family coaches, the first mail coach ran in 1784, operating between Bristol and London. Delivery staff received uniforms for the first time in 1793, the first mail train ran in 1830, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The Post Offices money order system was introduced in 1838, in December 1839 the first substantial reform started when postage rates were revised by the short-lived Uniform Fourpenny Post. Greater changes took place when the Uniform Penny Post was introduced on 10 January 1840 whereby a single rate for delivery anywhere in Great Britain and Ireland was pre-paid by the sender. A few months later, to certify that postage had been paid on a letter, the sender could affix the first adhesive postage stamp, other innovations were the introduction of pre-paid William Mulready designed postal stationery letter sheets and envelopes

6.
Robert the Bruce
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Robert I, popularly known as Robert the Bruce, was King of Scots from 1306 until his death in 1329. Robert was one of the most famous warriors of his generation and he fought successfully during his reign to regain Scotlands place as an independent country and is today revered in Scotland as a national hero. As Earl of Carrick, Robert the Bruce supported his familys claim to the Scottish throne, after submitting to Edward I in 1302 and returning to the kings peace, Robert inherited his familys claim to the Scottish throne upon his fathers death. In February 1306, Robert the Bruce killed Comyn following an argument, Bruce moved quickly to seize the throne and was crowned king of Scots on 25 March 1306. Bruce defeated his other Scots enemies, destroying their strongholds and devastating their lands, despite Bannockburn and the capture of the final English stronghold at Berwick in 1318, Edward II refused to renounce his claim to the overlordship of Scotland. In 1320, the Scottish nobility submitted the Declaration of Arbroath to Pope John XXII, declaring Robert as their rightful monarch and asserting Scotlands status as an independent kingdom. In 1324, the Pope recognised Robert I as king of an independent Scotland, and in 1326, Robert I died in June 1329. His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while his heart was interred in Melrose Abbey. Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale, the first of the Bruce, or de Brus, line arrived in Scotland with David I in 1124 and was given the lands of Annandale in Dumfries and Galloway. His mother was by all accounts a formidable woman who, legend would have it, from his mother, he inherited the Earldom of Carrick, and through his father, a royal lineage that would give him a claim to the Scottish throne. The Bruces also held estates in Aberdeenshire, County Antrim, County Durham, Essex, Middlesex. Although Robert the Bruces date of birth is known, his place of birth is less certain, although it is most likely to have been Turnberry Castle in Ayrshire, very little is known of his youth. Annandale was thoroughly feudalised and the form of Northern Middle English that would develop into the Scots language was spoken throughout the region. Robert the Bruce would most probably have become trilingual at an early age and he would have been schooled to speak, read and possibly write in the Anglo-Norman language of his Scots-Norman peers and his fathers family. He would also have both the Gaelic language of his Carrick birthplace and his mothers family, and the early Scots language. As the heir to an estate and a pious layman, Robert would also have been given working knowledge of Latin. This would have afforded Robert and his brothers access to education in the law, politics, scripture, saints Lives, philosophy, history and chivalric instruction. That Robert took personal pleasure in such learning and leisure is suggested in a number of ways, as king, Robert certainly commissioned verse to commemorate Bannockburn and his subjects military deeds

7.
Tudor architecture
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It is generally not used to refer to the whole period of the Tudor dynasty, but in prestige buildings to the period roughly between 1500 and 1560. It followed the Late Gothic Perpendicular style and was superseded by Elizabethan architecture from about 1560 in domestic building of any pretensions to fashion, in this form the Tudor style long retained its hold on English taste. The four-centered arch, now known as the Tudor arch, was a defining feature, some of the most remarkable oriel windows belong to this period. Mouldings are more out and the foliage becomes more naturalistic. During the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI, many Italian artists arrived in England, their decorative features can be seen at Hampton Court Palace, Layer Marney Tower, Sutton Place, and elsewhere. However, in the reign of Elizabeth I, the influence of Northern Mannerism. Courtiers and other wealthy Elizabethans competed to build houses that proclaimed their status. The Dissolution of the Monasteries redistributed large amounts of land to the wealthy, resulting in a building boom. The building of churches had already slowed somewhat before the English Reformation, after a boom in the previous century. Civic and university buildings became more numerous in the period. Tudor style buildings have features that separate them from Medieval. Castles and smaller manor houses often had moats, portcullises and crenellations designed for archers to stand guard, however, with the arrival of gunpowder and cannons by the time of Henry VI, fortifications like castles became increasingly obsolete. The autumn of 1485 marked the ascension of Henry VII to the throne, until Henrys accession, England had been engaged in the Wars of the Roses that had left the royal coffers in deep trouble-Yorkists had raided the treasury just after the death of Edward IV. Henry Tudor was hellbent on repairing the damage done by decades of war, though this period is better known for the luxuries and excesses of his son and granddaughter, it was actually under Henry VII that the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance began. In the early part of his reign, Henry Tudor favored a site at Sheen, someway down river from London and now known as Richmond Palace, as his primary residence. This had been one of the royal palaces since the reign of Edward II and this burnt to the ground at Christmas 1497, with the royal family in residence, and Henry began a new palace in a version of Renaissance style. This, called Richmond Palace and now completely lost, has described as the first prodigy house. During the reign of Henry VIII, architecture became a pastime of the king

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Pilaster
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The pilaster is an architectural element in classical architecture used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the wall surface, usually treated as though it were a column, with a capital at the top, plinth at the bottom. In contrast to a pilaster, a column or buttress can support the structure of a wall. It may be defined as a column which has lost its three-dimensional. A pilaster appears with a capital and entablature, also in low-relief or flattened against the wall and these vertical elements can also be used to support a recessed archivolt around a doorway. The pilaster can be replaced by ornamental brackets supporting the entablature or a balcony over a doorway, when a pilaster appears at the corner intersection of two walls it is known as a canton. As with a column, a pilaster can have a plain or fluted surface to its profile, during the Renaissance and Baroque architects used a range of pilaster forms. In the giant order pilasters appear as tall, linking floors in a single unit

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Cupola
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In architecture, a cupola /ˈkjuːpələ/ is a small, most often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to light and air. The word derives, via Italian, from the lower Latin cupula small cup indicating a vault resembling an upside down cup. The cupola is a development during the Renaissance of the oculus, an ancient device found in Roman architecture, the chhatri, seen in Indian architecture, fits the definition of a cupola when it is used atop a larger structure. Cupolas often appear as small buildings in their own right and they often serve as a belfry, belvedere, or roof lantern above a main roof. In other cases they may crown a spire, tower, or turret, barns often have cupolas for ventilation. The square, dome-like segment of a North American railroad train caboose that contains the second-level or angel seats is called a cupola. Some armored fighting vehicles have cupolas, called commanders cupola, which is a dome or cylinder with armored glass to provide 360-degree vision around the vehicle

10.
James Townsend (Lord Mayor of London)
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James Townsend was an English Whig politician and Lord Mayor of London in 1772. Initially a strong supporter of John Wilkes, he became a determined opponent. He was the son of Chauncy Townsend and educated at Hertford College, in politics James Townsend was closely linked from the 1760s with William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne. Supported by Shelburne, he entered Parliament as Member for West Looe at a by-election in 1767, in 1769 he was Sheriff of the City of London with John Sawbridge, and together they opposed Sir James Eyre on the place of execution of convicted weavers. In the same year Townsend followed John Horne in breaking away from the supporters of John Wilkes, in 1781 he presented a petition for electoral reform from the Tiverton activist Martin Dunsford. In 1782 Shelburne arranged for his election to Parliament for Calne, as a member he backed some calls for reform, but mainly supported William Pitt the Younger. Shortly before his death in office he had opposed the impeachment of Warren Hastings and he married in 1763 Rosa du Plessis, illegitimate daughter of Henry Hare, 3rd Baron Coleraine. She was her fathers heiress, but the estate had escheated to the Crown, by means of his fathers influence with Henry Fox, Townsend had the estate restored to him by a private Act of Parliament. They had one son, Henry Hare Townsend, and one daughter, Henry Hare Townsend married Charlotte Lake, daughter of Sir James Lake, bart. and was father of Chauncy Hare Townsend

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Georgian architecture
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Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, George III, and George IV—who reigned in continuous succession from August 1714 to June 1830. The style of Georgian buildings is very variable, but marked by a taste for symmetry and proportion based on the architecture of Greece and Rome. Ornament is also normally in the tradition, but typically rather restrained. In towns, which expanded greatly during the period, landowners turned into property developers, even the wealthy were persuaded to live in these in town, especially if provided with a square of garden in front of the house. There was an amount of building in the period, all over the English-speaking world. The period saw the growth of a distinct and trained architectural profession, before the mid-century the high-sounding title and this contrasted with earlier styles, which were primarily disseminated among craftsmen through the direct experience of the apprenticeship system. Authors such as the prolific William Halfpenny published editions in America as well as Britain, mail-order kit homes were also popular before World War II. The architect James Gibbs was a figure, his earlier buildings are Baroque, reflecting the time he spent in Rome in the early 18th century. Other prominent architects of the early Georgian period include James Paine, Robert Taylor, and John Wood, the styles that resulted fall within several categories. In the mainstream of Georgian style were both Palladian architecture—and its whimsical alternatives, Gothic and Chinoiserie, which were the English-speaking worlds equivalent of European Rococo. John Nash was one of the most prolific architects of the late Georgian era known as The Regency style, greek Revival architecture was added to the repertory, beginning around 1750, but increasing in popularity after 1800. Leading exponents were William Wilkins and Robert Smirke, regularity of housefronts along a street was a desirable feature of Georgian town planning. In Britain brick or stone are almost invariably used, brick is often disguised with stucco, in America and other colonies wood remained very common, as its availability and cost-ratio with the other materials was more favourable. Versions of revived Palladian architecture dominated English country house architecture, Houses were increasingly placed in grand landscaped settings, and large houses were generally made wide and relatively shallow, largely to look more impressive from a distance. The height was usually highest in the centre, and the Baroque emphasis on corner pavilions often found on the continent generally avoided, in grand houses, an entrance hall led to steps up to a piano nobile or mezzanine floor where the main reception rooms were. A single block was typical, with a perhaps a small court for carriages at the front marked off by railings and a gate, but rarely a stone gatehouse, or side wings around the court. Windows in all types of buildings were large and regularly placed on a grid, this was partly to minimize window tax and their height increasingly varied between the floors, and they increasingly began below waist-height in the main rooms, making a small balcony desirable

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Gothic Revival architecture
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Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. Gothic Revival draws features from the original Gothic style, including decorative patterns, finials, scalloping, lancet windows, hood mouldings, the Gothic Revival movement emerged in 19th-century England. Its roots were intertwined with deeply philosophical movements associated with a re-awakening of High Church or Anglo-Catholic belief concerned by the growth of religious nonconformism, ultimately, the Anglo-Catholicism tradition of religious belief and style became widespread for its intrinsic appeal in the third quarter of the 19th century. The Gothic Revival was paralleled and supported by medievalism, which had its roots in antiquarian concerns with survivals, as industrialisation progressed, a reaction against machine production and the appearance of factories also grew. Proponents of the such as Thomas Carlyle and Augustus Pugin took a critical view of industrial society. To Pugin, Gothic architecture was infused with the Christian values that had been supplanted by classicism and were being destroyed by industrialisation, poems such as Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson recast specifically modern themes in medieval settings of Arthurian romance. In German literature, the Gothic Revival also had a grounding in literary fashions, guarino Guarini, a 17th-century Theatine monk active primarily in Turin, recognized the Gothic order as one of the primary systems of architecture and made use of it in his practice. Some of the earliest evidence of a revival in Gothic architecture is from Scotland, inveraray Castle, constructed from 1746, with design input from William Adam, displays the incorporation of turrets. These were largely conventional Palladian style houses that incorporated some features of the Scots baronial style. The eccentric landscape designer Batty Langley even attempted to improve Gothic forms by giving them classical proportions, a younger generation, taking Gothic architecture more seriously, provided the readership for J. Brittens series of Cathedral Antiquities, which began appearing in 1814. In 1817, Thomas Rickman wrote an Attempt. to name and define the sequence of Gothic styles in English ecclesiastical architecture, the categories he used were Norman, Early English, Decorated, and Perpendicular. It went through numerous editions and was still being republished by 1881. The largest and most famous Gothic cathedrals in the U. S. A. are St. Patricks Cathedral in New York City and Washington National Cathedral on Mount St. Alban in northwest Washington, D. C. One of the biggest churches in Gothic Revival style in Canada is Basilica of Our Lady Immaculate in Ontario, Gothic Revival architecture was to remain one of the most popular and long-lived of the Gothic Revival styles of architecture. The revived Gothic style was not limited to architecture, classical Gothic buildings of the 12th to 16th Centuries were a source of inspiration to 19th-century designers in numerous fields of work. Architectural elements such as pointed arches, steep-sloping roofs and fancy carvings like lace ant lattice work were applied to a range of Gothic Revival objects. Sir Walter Scotts Abbotsford exemplifies in its furnishings the Regency Gothic style, parties in medieval historical dress and entertainment were popular among the wealthy in the 1800s but has spread in the late 20th century to the well-educated middle class as well. By the mid-19th century, Gothic traceries and niches could be inexpensively re-created in wallpaper, the illustrated catalogue for the Great Exhibition of 1851 is replete with Gothic detail, from lacemaking and carpet designs to heavy machinery